The Houston Astros defeated the Minnesota Twins 5-0 on Tuesday behind the arm of starting pitcher Justin Verlander. The four-time Cy Young Award winner dominated the Twins, taking a no-hitter into the eighth inning. With only five outs to garner what would have been his fourth career no-hitter, Twins’ Gio Urshela picked up a base hit.

Verlander would finish the inning unscathed and finished the game tossing eight shutout innings, with that lone hit and striking out five.

After the game, the Astros ace addressed the media. He was asked if the no-hitter was on his mind as he took the mound in the eighth inning. Clearly, Verlander was in good spirits considering his answer.

“I wasn’t worried about it. I saw you texted, I tweeted a bunch about it, so I knew it wouldn’t happen,” said Verlander to the laughs of the media members in the room.

Verlander has been off to a great start to the season considering he had not pitched in almost three years due to injury. He made one appearance in 2020 and needed elbow surgery after Opening Day. That was MLB’s shortened season due to COVID. Then that fall, the Astros ace required Tommy John Surgery, costing him his entire 2021 season.

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He appears not to have missed a beat. The last full season we saw of Verlander, he won back-to-back American League Cy Young Awards in 2018 and 2019. This season through six starts, Verlander has a sparkling 1.55 ERA, an unreal 0.64 WHIP and is 4-1.

Houston is battling with the Los Angeles Angels for the top spot in the AL West thus far.